Mining machine with side cutting disk



2 She ets-Sheet 1 HA Hahn.

J- HERRMANN MINING MACHINE WITH SIDE CUTTING DISK May 7, 1957 Filed June 19, 195 1 INYENTOR Ha?! Maw oi Q\- u 335 M A. Q W i 7, 1957 J. HERRMANN 2,791,411

MINING'MACHINE WITH szm: CUTTING uxsx Filed June 19 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS I IIIIIIIIIIIIIII ifllfflfrlvvvw JIM/us Her/man. JM/W 1 R v m United States Patent MINING MACHINE WITH SIDE CUTTING DISK Julius Hermann, Wethmar, near Lunen, Germany, as-

signor to Gewerkschaft Eisenhuette Westfalia, Lunen (Westfalen), Germany, a corporation of Germany Application June 19, 1951, Serial No. 232,259 Claims priority, application Germany June 28, 1950 13 Claims. (Cl. 262--8) This invention relates to a new mining machine.

One object of this invention is a mining machine for cutting and removing coal or other minerals from the face in an underground mine.

This and still further objects will become apparent from. the following description read in conjunction with the drawings in which:

Fig. 1 shows a top elevation of the entire machine according to the invention, part of the gearing being shown in section;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the cutting disk and drive shaft of the machine shown in Figure 1;

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the machine, and

Fig. 4 is a section through the line 44 in Figure 1.

-Figs. 5 and 6 show two forms of my cutting disk.

According to the invention a mining machine is constructed having a disk-like cutting blade mounted on a pin which in turn is eccentrically mounted on a revolving drive-shaft. It is preferable that the cutting blade be mounted for free rotation on the pin. Since the pin on which the cutting blade is mounted is eccentrically positioned, any portion of the outer edge of the cutting blade. will describe a circle equal in radius to the distance from the edge of the cutting blade to the center thereof plus the distance from the center of the pin to the axis of rotation of the drive-shaft, as the shaft rotates. In addition to this motion, of the cutting blade in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the drive shaft, it has been found advantageous to provide additional motion of the cutting blade in and out of this plane. For this purpose, the eccentric pin may be mounted so that its axis is not parallel with the .axis of rotation of the drive shaft and forms a small angle therewith. This angle is preferably formed so that the axis of the pin is closer to the axis of rotation of the drive shaft at the free end of the pin than it is at the end of the pin which is connected to the drive shaft.

As the drive shaft rotates, the cutting blade must be advanced along the mine face to cut as it moves. It has been found convenient to arrange the drive shaft on a machine frame and position it approximately in the middle of the frame between a motor and a machine advancing winch. The machine may thus be caused to cut in either direction along the mine face without it being necessary to change the direction of rotation of the drive shaft.

The machine may be advanced along the mine face in any suitable manner. When using a winch for this purpose, the drum of the winch may be mounted on the machine frame, and it is advisable to insert a disengageable clutch between the drum and the motor so that the wound up winch cable may be drawn off from the drum even when the motor is stopped. This will allow temporary interruption of the feed with the cutting blade still operating when overcoming obstructions of many kinds, as for example overloading of the conveyor or the like. The free end of the winch cable may be anchored at any suitable point to a'prop. or a stationary ice 2 part of the conveyor. The machine housing may be provided with guide rollers for leading the winch cable around the machine housing when the machine is moving along the face in the direction of the side on whicli the motor is positioned. This allows the use of only one cable winch for both directions of working.

It is convenient to use the machine in connection with a conveyor, the machine being guided by the conveyor as it moves along the face. If the machine is so arranged, it is convenient to have a clearing beam hinged to the end of the machine which follows the cutting blade along the direction of movement. The beam car- 'ries a plough shear shaped sliding plate for lifting the loosened coal and loading it laterally into the conveyor. if the machine is to be used in both directions of movement, a similar beam should also be hinged on the front end of the machine frame, the sliding plate then being secured on the beam which follows the cutting head in its particular direction of motion. Each clearing beam may support a guide roller for the winch cable. These guide rollers are positioned for guiding the winch cable near the mine face. If the free end of the cable is, for example, secured to the side wall of the conveyor, the cable will be bent around the guide roller on the clearing beam at an angle and thus insure that the machine bears with sufiicient certainty on the conveyor.

In order to provide adequate space for receiving the coal loosened by the cutting blade on its side away from the coal face, the machine frame is carried on a supporting base which in turn is supported on the mine floor by means of slide shoes turned toward thecoal face. In this manner a channel for the passage of at least a part of the loosened coal is obtained underneath the machine frame.

Of course, any suitable feeding or hauling arrangement may be employed instead of a cable Winch. Thus it is possible to provide the machine according to the invention with caterpillar treads or the like so that it may be moved along the working face as an independent unit without being guided on the conveyor or the like.

In operation the periphery of the cutting blade which is mounted on the eccentric pin describes an arc of greater diameter than the diameter of the cutting blade. This described are has a diameter which is greater than the diameter of the cutting blade by twice the distance with which the center of the pin. is off-set from the center of the drive shaft. Thus as the cutting blade is moved into the mine face, a semi-circular slide is cut in the face of the same radius as the arc which is described by the periphery of the cutting blade. If the cutting blade is rotatably mounted on the eccentric pin, the cutting blade will roll in the slot since only a small portion bears in the slot. In this way, the cutting blade is rotated about its axis in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the drive shaft. The periphery of the cutting blade lags with respect to its rolling path a certain distance in each revolution of the eccentric pin. This distance of lag is equal to the circular path which the eccentric pin describes in the same time. What is important in this case is the movement of the eccentric pin in the plane covered by the cutting edge. This not only has the advantage that the point on the cutting edge which is in operation at a particular moment is always changing, but that the reverse rotational movement of the cutting blade also produces the result that a large portion of the loosened coal discharges rearwardly above the hub of the cutting blade. This causes a large part of the broken coal to fall directly into the conveyor and leaves only a comparatively small part to be discharged rearwardly beneath the shaft of the cutting blade. This is of particular importance when working with thick seams. In order that no interruptions will s be caused by the coal so discharged, the channel beneath the machine frame is kept free. In any case, the movement of the machine is not hindered in any way by the loosened coal.

Since thecutting disk rotates in a dirction counter to the direction of rotation of the drive shaft, and the operative portion of the cutting disk is continuously changing, the cutting edge may be provided with gaps for differently shaped teeth. According to the strength and the other properties of the mineral to be loosened, the cross sectional shape of the teeth may be different. It has proven particularly expedient to provide cutting teeth which are shaped in an arrow-head like fashion.

As the plane of rotation of the cutting blade continuously oscillates at an angle back and forth across a plane parallel to the plane of rotation of the drive shaft, the slot which is produced in the mine face is broader than the cutting blade itself and, consequently, there is no danger of the cutting blade becoming jambed. Moreover, this rolling movement of the cutting disk facilitates breaking off of the coal.

Referring to the drawings for one constructional embodiment of the invention, a motor 11 is mounted on the frame 10, the frame and motor both resting on a metal plate 12 which in turn is supported on the hollow foot 13. Slide shoes 14 are arranged in the vicinity of the ends of the foot 13, the shoes, which are directed towards the mine face, being so long that the center of gravity of the machine remains constantly supported, so that there is no danger of it tipping over.

The motor 11 is a reversible compressed air motor, the supply of compressed air to which is effected through a hose 15 via a shut-off cock 16. The stub shaft 17 of the motor drives a drive shaft 19 through a pair of bevel gears 18, and is mounted in the housing 10 on bearings 20 and 21. The end of the shaft 19 projecting from the housing is formed as an eccentric pin 22, and as maybe seen more particularly in Fig. 2, the eccentricity of the pin 22 is smaller at its free end than it is in the vicinity of the bearing 20. The pin 22 is thus arranged at an inclination to the shaft 19, as will be appreciated from the chain-dotted lines 19a and 2211 which do not extend parallel to one another. Freely rotatably mounted on the eccentric pin 22, by means of two. roller bearings 24, is a cutting disk 23, which consequently does not need to participate in the rotation of the shaft 19, while on the other hand it is moved in circles by the eccentric pin 22. The rim 25 of the cutting disk 23 constitutes the cutter proper which may be an unbroken circle but which may also be composed of sector-like parts separated from one another by more or less large interstices. Such separate cutters may be connected with the cutting disk 23 by welding, screwing or in any other known manner.

A cable drum 32 is driven from the shaft 19 through worm gearing 26, 27 and gear wheels 28, 29, 30 and 31. The drive is not effected directly by the gear wheel 31, but by interposing a claw coupling 33 (Fig. 4) which is slidable but not rotatable, on the shaft 34. The constantly rotating gear 31 is loose on the shaft 34 and carries claws on the side facing the claw coupling which are complementary to the claws on the coupling. By displacement of the claw coupling in an upward direction, the claws on the coupling are brought out of mesh. If the claws are in mesh, the gear 31 drives the shaft 34 and thus the cable drum 32 which is keyed thereto, so that a cable 35 secured on the drum is wound up. The disengagement of the coupling 33 is effected by a fork 36 which engages in a groove of the coupling 33, and is fixed on a shaft 37 mounted in the gear housing 10. Disposed at the free end of this shaft 37 there is an actuating lever 38 which can be lifted by hand in order to disengage the coupling, this being automatically engaged upon when the lever is released.

In order thatthe cable tension shall not exceed a permissible maximum value, a slipping clutch (not shown in the drawing) is, for example, interposed between the worm wheel 27 and the gear 28.

The winding cable 35 is led from the drum 32 over a guide roller 39 to a prop set up in the mine working. The free end of the cable 35 may, however, be secured to the side section of a conveyor 40 which is arranged parallel to the mine face in the Working. If the machine is to operate in the opposite direction, the cable 35 is led over cable rollers 41 to a reversing roller 42 and from thence on again to a fixed point of support or the like.

Holding or clearing beams 43, 44 are connected to the machine frame 10, 11 at both ends and are hinged by horizontal bolts 43 and 44 Fig. 3. These bolts allow a limited upward and downward movement of the beams, the angle of swinging movement being defined by the rear ends 43d and 44d, which engage in the hollow supporting foot 13. The rear extension 43d and 44d, in conjunction with the bolts 43 and 44 positively prevent swinging of the beams 43 and 44 in a horizontal plane.

A passage 45 (Fig. 4) kept free underneath the machine frame 10, 11 on the side nearest the coal face is closed at its ends by inclined flaps 46 and 47 which are articulated to the base plate 12 of the frame by means of horizontal pins. At the bottom, these flaps bear against stops on the beam 43 or 44.

The reversing rollers 39 and 42, which are arranged at the ends of the beams 43 and 44, effect a sharp bending of the winding cable 35 when the free end of the cable is connected to the conveyor or close thereto. The end of the extraction machine disposed at the front in the direction of movement is constantly pulled with sufiicient reliability against the conveyor, which thus serves as a guide track for the extraction machine, and the lateral loading of the extracted coal into the conveyor presents no difficulties.

The loosening of the coal or other mineral from the mine face is carried out by the cutting disk 23, which cuts behind a coal bank 50 of the face 49. The cutting disk is moved by the eccentric pin 22, for example, at to 1500 revolutions per minute. As the cutting disk does not at first participate in the rotations of the pin 22, its cutting edge 25 describes an arc the radius of which due to the eccentricity of the pin 22, is greater in the plane of the cutting edge 25 than the radius of the cutting disk 23. In this manner, an arcuate slot 51 is cut inthecoal, and corresponds to the said larger arc. However, since the radius of the cutting disk 23 is smaller at any moment the cutter only bears on the coal with a short portion of its periphery in the slot. The entire advancing pull on the machine is concentrated on this short section, so that it is given a very considerable specific pressure which allows the cutting edge to penetrate into the coal. Since the cutter is constantly moved in an arcuate path by the eccentric pin, its cutting edge hammers against the coal everywhere where it comes into contact with it. The cutter operates in the same manner both in an upward and downward direction and breaks off the undercut coal bank 50. The breaking off of the coal is further assisted by the shallow frustoconical form of the cutting disk, but mainly because the cutting disk completes a rolling movement in the direction of the shaft 19, as indicated by the chain-dotted line 23a in Fig. 2 of the drawing, this rolling movement being attained because the center line 22a of the eccentric pin 22 forms a small angle with the center line 19a of the shaft 19. Because of the rolling movement, the slot 51 produced in the coal is broader than the cutter edge 25 and the disk 23. Moreover, the cutting disk is operated absolutely freely at its side facing the face, so that any particles of coal trickling down are crushed. Finally, because of the rolling movement, the breaking away of the undercut bank 50 is also assisted, as already explained.

Since a part of the cutting edge periphery always bears only in the deepest part of the slot 51, it is rolled on the coal. The consequence of this is a slow rotation of the cutting disk in a direction opposite to that of the eccentric pin 22. For example, if the cutting disk has a diameter of 600 mm. and if the eccentricity of the eccentric pin 22 is mm. in the plane of the cutting edge, then if the eccentric pin completes 1000 revolutions per minute, there is produced a backward rotation of the cutting disk 23 of about 35 revolutions in the same time. Thus, with each revolution, the cutting disk lags by the amount of 2 10 3.14=62 mm. in its travel with respect to the coal. This means that with each new forward thrust of the cutter, the cutting edge 25 is displaced by about 60 mm. in the direction of rotation. The rotational movement of the cutting disk does not cease even when it is temporarily not touching the coal face. The result of this is that the cutting action is not appreciably obstructed by damage at one place or another of the cutting edge 25. It is even sufficient to provide the cutting disk with separate cutting teeth which are arranged at a certain distance from one another. Moreover, the cutting teeth may be of any desired formation and cutters of arrow head formation seem to be particularly advantageous. According to the hardness of the coal or of any other mineral to be extracted, it is possible to determine empirically the most expedient shape of the cutters.

The coal loosened from the coal face above the axis of rotation of the cutting disk 23 falls for the most part over the machine and directly into the conveyor 40 but, a large part also falls laterally alongside the machine behind the cutting disk 23. This coal is taken up by a slide plate 52 which is so upwardly inclined on the transverse member of the rearwardly-directed clearing beam 44 that the coal which is taken up is transferred into the conveyor 40. The coal which is detached below the axis of rotation of the cutting disk 23 is partly lifted by the counter-rotating hub of the cutting disk 23 and thrown to the rear, where it is also collected by the slide plate 52. A small part of this coal, however, is forced to the side into the passage 45 beneath the machine. The machine travels over this coal, thereby raising the flap 4,7.

The oscillations caused by the rotating eccentric pm 22 are partially transmitted to the machine frame 10, 11. They can be eliminated by suitably arranged counter weights or the like. A certain degree of oscillation is, however, of advantage, because by it the sliding friction of the machine on the conveyor 40 or on the floor is reduced and, on the other hand, large lumps of coal which have passed into the passage 45 are broken down to a sufficient degree.

If the machine is to operate in the opposite direction, the slide plate 52 is arranged on the other clearing beam 44. The free end of the cable is detached and secured in the opposite direction. Upon the backward travel of the machine, the motor 11 can be reversed, but this is not necessary.

A particular advantage of the extracting machine according to the present invention consists in the small size and the correspondingly light weight of the separate parts. If the machine is to be set up in another working, the clearing beams 43 and 44 are detached by taking out the bolts 43 and 44 from the middle section 10, 11. Each of these three separate sections can be easily and rapidly transported. A further advantage consists in that the extracting mechanism in itself is not dependent on the conveyor 40. The machine can therefore be employed in combination with any desired conveyor or can even be set up without a conveyor when the detached heap of coal is picked up by hand, with a loading machine or in any other manner, and then transported. Two or even more extracting machines as described can be installed simultaneously instead of one machine in relatively long galleries.

Fig. 5 of the drawings shows another form of the cutting disk 23. The disk is provided with a plurality of segmented cutting edges 45 arranged close one to another around the periphery of the disk. They also may be arranged spaced one from another. The cutting edges 45 are fixed by screws or rivets 46.

According to Fig. 6 of the drawing the periphery of the cutting disk 23 is provided with a plurality of individual cutting elements 47, which are shaped like arrow heads. Each element has a conical shaft with which it is inserted in a corresponding bore-hole of the disk 23.

I claim:

1. In a minin machine movable along a mining face for the removal of material therefrom, the improvement comprising a drive shaft positioned on such a machine substantially transverse to the normal direction of movement of the machine along the mine face, a pin eccentrically positioned on one end of said drive shaft, a cutting disc freely rotatably mounted on said pin so that its axis of rotation form an angle with the axis of rotation of said drive shaft, and drive means positioned for imparting rotary motion to said drive shaft.

2.. Improvement according to claim 1 in which said pin is so positioned on said drive shaft that its axis forms an angle with and converges toward the axis of rotation of said drive shaft in a direction along said pin toward its free end.

3. Improvement according to claim 1 in which said cutting disk is provided with a segmented cutting edge around its periphery.

4. Improvement according to claim 1 in which said cutting disk is provided with multiple, individual cutting elements positioned about its periphery.

5. Improvement according to claim 4 in which said individual cutting elements are shaped like arrow heads.

6. Improvement according to claim 1 in which said drive shaft is positioned on a machine frame with said drive means positioned on one end thereof and a machine advancing Winch positioned on the other end thereof.

7. Improvement according to claim 6 in which said winch is connected to said drive means for rotary motion through a disengageable coupling.

8. Improvement according to claim 7 in which said machine frame is mounted on a supporting foot positioned on the opposite side of the said frame to said cutting disk, said supporting foot being supported by slide shoes positioned at the bottom thereof and facing in the direction of the said cutting disk.

9. Improvement according to claim 8 including a clearing beam mounted on said machine frame with a horizontal pivot and positioned on one side of said drive shaft in a direction substantially transverse thereto, said clearing beam having a slide plate positioned at the free end thereof.

10. Improvement according to claim 9 including an additional clearing beam pivotably mounted on said machine frame on the side opposite the other clearing beam.

11. Improvement according to claim 10 in which said additional clearing beam has a guide roller positioned at its free end near the plane of the cutting disk.

12. Improvement according to claim 11 having a bearing positioned on the drive means end of the said drive shaft on the rear of said machine frame.

13. Improvement according to claim 12 including two hinged fiaps positioned on the lower part of said machine frame in front of the portion where said clearing beams are attached to said machine frame, said hinged flaps being positioned at an inclination away from said drive shaft in a downward direction.

(References on following page) 7 References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Case June 3, Morgan Apr. 30, Pickin Sept. 10, Ofiicier Apr. 20, Simmons May 23, Rossman Nov. 14,

8 Thompson July 23, Anderson Apr. 15, Robbins Sept. 29, Bainbridge Sept. 21, Graham Nov. 16,

FOREIGN PATENTS France Dec. 27, Germany Oct. 29, 

